Tian Wei lay in his bed replaying the days events over and over again. He was supposed to have gone to beds hours ago but no mattered how hard he tried, he just couldn’t seem to fall asleep.
In all fairness it wasn't all that surprising after the day he had. What should have been a wonderful day filled with celebrations and hope for a future, was marred by the revelations that his life was on a quickly decreasing timer, as was his mothers.
He had spent the rest of the day with his parents talking to him and giving him reminders and pointers for when he would eventually head off to begin his training as the spirit master college in the city. Old Jack had already passed through by then had jubilantly explained the process of gaining acceptance at the spirit college.
In two weeks time Tian Wei and Tang San would be taken to the college by Old Jack where they would have to register and enroll. Since the two of them had been recommended by the City official after their Martial Soul awakening, they would be enrolled into the college as scholarship students, the group that most if not all children who hailed form rural villages had to join, where they would remain for the foreseeable future.
As Spirit Masters were viewed and treated as an important resource within any kingdom, special Spirit Master colleges had been erected all throughout the Heaven Dou Empire to allow children from all walks of life to receive adequate training in order to begin their journey as Spirit Masters.
It was during their years of study at the these colleges that officials and members of the nobles caste from within the kingdom were able to monitor and pick out potentially powerful Spirit Master and recruit them into their families, organizations, or factions.
It was also here that many children were pushed to join the Heaven Dou Empire’s army as an alternative route for those who might not be able to progress far into the path of a Spirit Master.
Of course while the Empire was more than willing to foot the bill for these colleges to ensure that any and all children were able to apply for and enroll in these colleges for free, as with everything in the world, just because all of the students were free to enroll didn’t mean that the students should take that route do just to save some money. Not all students were deemed equal at the colleges and your standing at enrollment could very well make or break your future.
The college that they were going to be enrolling into was divided into two classes of students, ‘Scholarship’ students and ‘Legacy’ students. The only dividing line between the two was whether they were able to pay the entrance fees on enrollment or whether they took advantage of the free enrollment provided by the kingdom.
Both he and Tang San would be enrolled as working class students since the fees needed for them to become legacy students would have been way too much even if the village offered to pay in their parents stead.
After all the arrangements had been ironed out and a decision had been made, Tian Wei had decided to go to bed as he just wanted to be alone.
While it seemed as if everything was going smoothly, Tian Wei wasn’t a fool. He had already realized that if all his parents truly wanted was for him to become a powerful Spirit Master then there was no real reason for them to push him to attend a spirit master college to do so.
While both of them were currently greatly weakened, with his mother currently unable to even use her soul power, he was sure that the both of them would still be able to train and teach him to a much higher standard than any of the instructors at the spirit college could.
While they hadn’t told him exactly how powerful they had been, the fact that his mother had been enduring all this time, and was still supposedly able to last so much longer with such a vicious poison coursing through her veins could only mean that they had been extremely powerful back in the day.
The insights and knowledge that they would have amassed during their years of training would have been much more comprehensive and should have greatly surpassed the knowledge of the spirit college teachers, who he had found out had an average soul power of twenty-five to thirty-five.
In that case if they truly intended for him to become a powerful spirit master that would then be able to leverage his strength to get help from other spirit masters it only made sense for him to stay with them in the village where they could mold and shape him into the perfect spirit master, instead of pushing him to go and learn from inferior teachers.
So why would they send him away if they themselves could do a much better job? The only thing that came to mind was that they wanted him to experience the world on his own. They didn’t want to influence him and affect the choices he would have to make along the way on his path to power. They wanted him to have a chance to live his life without worrying about them and the expectations that they would have placed on his shoulders.
Tian Wei was sure that His parents had already made peace with the fact that they would never be able to reach the heights that they once had and even though they tried their best to hide it, Tian Wei still saw that neither of them truly believed that he would be able to find a solution to the poison either.
Even though they gave him a possible way to solve the crisis that plagued him, he refused to believe that his father would have refused to attempt it simply because he was afraid of being found out by his pursuers. There were a multitude of ways to get around such a problem and if they had been able to find the material needed to attempt to make an antidote, then it should have been possible to find someone willing to attempt to control the soul worm to extract the poison.
No, Tain Wei figured that the only reason they told him such a convincing story was to make sure that his sole focus became occupied with thoughts of getting stronger. After all the more powerful he was, the longer he had to live and the more time he would have to experience the world around him. While neither of his parents could give him a cure, they were at least trying their best to give him a chance at life.
Tian Wei once more summoned his martial soul and watched as the shield pulsed rhythmically in his hand. Even though he’d only had it for a day, it served to calm his nerves, as if the gentle flicker of its golden gem had the power to sooth his racing mind. Once he had calmed himself he once more affirm his decision to find a way to cure himself and his mother.
Even if his parents didn’t believe that he could do it, he was determined to prove them wrong.
Finally giving up on falling asleep Tian Wei decided to instead spend his time meditating. He hadn’t gotten a chance to do it recently and even though he wasn’t able to progress past the bottle neck, he still believed in Tang San’s words that he still benefited from it.
He closed his eyes and began to temper his breathing. He did everything like he would when he sat next to Tang San on his rock, except for the fact that in the palm of his hand as he sat in lotus position, lay his Martial Soul.
Time flashed by and the time of departure quickly arrived. Tian Wei and Tang San sat on a pile of hay as Old jack took the reins of the donkey that had been hitched to the front of the wagon that they were going to use to get to the city.
“Make sure you brush your teeth every night before bed, and make sure to eat at least three meals a day, and don’t eat to many sweets.”
“Mom I know, you don’t have to keep remeinding me.” Tian Wei blushed as he heard snickers from the crowd that had gathered to send them off.
“You listen to your mother young man. Believe it or not, she’ll know if your not taking care of yourself and you don’t want her making a fuss at your new school. She can be scary when she wants to be.” Tian Jin patted his son of the back.
“Do you have everything packed away properly?" His mother raised her eyebrow at Tian Jin but couldn’t be bothered to deal with him right now
“Yes mom I didn’t forget anything.” Tian Wei quickly showed his parents the small inconspicuous ring that he now donned on his finger.
A few days ago his parents had pulled him aside and given the ring to him as a present for awakening. He had been confused as to why they had given him a ring until he had pushed his soul power into it.
As soon as he had done so, he felt a connection to the ring and the space within it. It didn’t take him long to realize that the ring was a storage device and after asking his mother and father, they ahd explained to him that it was A spirit tool.
Spirit tools where devices that had been forged and made byt spirit master with the revlant knowledge and martial souls need to make tools that were powered by and used with soul power. They ranged from something simply like the ring he had been given, to something more complex like the turrets that lined the calls of the city he was going to be staying in the future.
Of course these tools where quite expensive and great sought after and as such it was imperative that he not allow other to know that he had one on his person. Especially such a valuable spirit tool like a storage ring.
As such even though he had a small bag on his shoulder with some clothes and such items inside to fool other, he kept most of his important items inside of his ring. The bag of money that his parents had given him which he was certain was filed with gold coins, the book of beast that his mother had made and given to him so that he could study as well several rations that his father had insisted that he carry.
His father had been adamant that he always carry a set amount of food and water in his ring just in case he even ended up stranded somewhere without access to food and water. While he did admit that the chances of something like that happening where slim, it was still better to be prepared and it never occur that not to be prepared and be caught lacking.
Interestingly enough, while the ring did slow down the spoiling of food, he would still have to change out the rations that he stored from time to time.
The sight of the ring only served as a reminder that he truly didn’t know a lot about the world of Spirit Masters, and while he could have begged his parents to give him more information, he had decided that he wanted to discover it on his own.
Whether such a decision was a good one or not? Only time would tell.
While Tian Wei and his parents kept talking he took notice of the fact that Tang San’s father was absent from among the crowd. He didn’t endeavor to ask Tang San about it though since he knew that he and his father had a very weird relationship.
He was forced to forget that train of thought as Old Jack was ready to head off.
“All right boys, it’s time to go! If we don’t want to end up locked out of the cities gates we’ll need to move quickly” Old jack hopped unto the cart with gusto as he looked over the two children.
“I’m sure you’re both very excited about what’s to come but no need to worry. You’ll both do well. I can feel it!”
Turning once more to his parents Tian Wei pulled them close for a final hug good bye. He wasn’t sure how long it would be until he was able to see them again and though that scared him greatly, he wasn’t going to let it show. He put on a brave face and climbed onto the cart and sat besides Tang San.
With both boys seated Old Jack whipped the reins and the donkey started trotting off down the dirt road out of the village. Both boys turned to watch as the village slowly faded in the distance before settling in for the long trek onwards.
This was but the start of their voyage and both of them were excited about what was to come.
